


Malignant Morpheus

by Darkwood_Princess



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Gen, Insomnia, Lucid Dreaming, Night Terrors, Sleep Paralysis, Sleeptalking, Sleepwalking, but what else is new, snoring
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-01-04 14:50:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12171048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkwood_Princess/pseuds/Darkwood_Princess
Summary: And Who When Dreaming… Finds Unreal Their Dreams (Walter de la Mare)Or the one where no one can sleep for a variety of reasons.





	1. Coran, Coran the Sleep Walking Man

**Author's Note:**

> This was a study break and will be updated as time allows! I've only seen season one so far, but I love this show! Spoilers for Season One (?). Chapter One is set during early Season One.

He didn’t like to close his eyes. When they were open he could focus on the present, on the day to day troubles of running a castle which truly should have a fleet of servants instead of one royal retainer, a tired princess, and several caring but (mostly) technologically untrained human youths. He could plan what he would attempt to make for meals, what new techniques he should run by the Paladins, what he might be able to do to coax a smile out of the Princess, holding up well but imperfectly.

But when they closed, when he rested for the merest of moments, it all came crashing back in magnificent technicolor, memories of another time and place that refused to leave him be. The past felt as if it were but a step away, that if he just wished hard enough, he could open a door in the castle and step back into a drastically different time.

Coran had never been a sleep walker. But when he found himself on the bridge in his pajamas the first night after cryosleep with no memory of how he got there, he knew with the sinking certainty of this brave new world they’d awoken to, that he was stuck with yet another change to his already fractured reality.

(He threw himself into the Castle’s upkeep. He delayed sleep longer and longer. He relied on his Altean physiology in ways he’d only used during the war. And. Yet. He. Kept. Walking.)

But if it were only walking, it would just be a mere annoyance. No, it was the dreams that really troubled him.

_He was a small child and his Grandfather was telling him how beautiful and magnificent the Balmera were, how they needed the crystals to power the Castle of Lions, his greatest creation, that they weren’t heathens, they’d repay the being with some royal help. The crystal fields stretched before him, glimmering in the soft sunlight, and a young Alfor was excitedly performing his first repayment ceremony, the ground glowing around him with joy._

Kitchen this time, sitting at the table in his spot, the dim lighting highlighting how very tired he was.

_There were so many healing pods that needed scrubbing, so quiznacking many, and he wondered if he’d ever do anything so mundane and tedious again. What he wouldn’t give for a little bit of excitement in his life. Grandfather had never said this was part of joining up…_

Library. A dozen AI’s at his fingertips. None of them the right one.

_A Royal Ball thrown for Allura’s Birth, courtier’s and visiting dignitaries whirling to an ethereal and airy tune, joy at the Princess’ birth on the faces of all attending. He is a young adult now, in service of the Crown, and oh so proud of his appointment. The moment is absolutely perfect, the warm air scented with the fragrance of juniberries and orchelian blossoms, and he hopes that this bliss can last forever as he steps outside for a glimpse of the soft moonlight on the palace courtyards._

Engine room. The crystal winking almost cheekily as he nearly trips over in shock, his shins banging the surrounding platform.

_There was blood and devastation and how couldn’t they have seen this coming? But that was the easy thing about betrayal wasn’t it, you didn’t expect it and by the time it happened it was far too late to course correct, and he was an engineer and a retainer, nowhere near powerful or intelligent enough to fix this, but Alfor was depending on him, he couldn’t fail his friend now… Oh quiznak, this pod was **cold**. _

_Alfor’s smile filled with regret and hope, the last thing he saw before the chill completely took him down._

Black’s bay, the lion staring at him quizzically, wondering why he he’d interrupted her slumber by stumbling into her domain.

(A question he wasn’t quite sure how to answer.)

Bridge. Kitchen. Engine Room. Library. Guest Rooms. Servant Quarters. Main Hall. Lion Bays.  

It’s almost a relief when he runs into Pidge one evening, literally, the smallest Paladin still awake as she stumbles and realizes what’s happening before he can come up with a cheery but false excuse.

(He doesn’t feel like cheer currently anyways. But one tries, truly.)

They sit down in the hallway and she talks to him quietly, the magic of a dark hallway and sleepless solidarity helping the words to flow, telling him of Matt and how he sleep walked as a kid, how her family put bells on the doors, loud enough to wake him, how it worked perfectly.

And while the dreams don’t stop, the bells dug up from some holiday long forgotten do stop his nocturnal ramblings, and Coran finds that he’s more rested even with the burden of the past still squarely there.

But perhaps, that too in time will fade.

_(His only question, why had Pidge been awake???)_


	2. Pidge the Insomniac

She had never found sleep to be a particularly easy state to reach. Her mind raced too quickly, too often for her to find the deeps at a relatively early hour. And if she had thought this was hard before when she was merely another human on a planet full of people, it was even harder in space, surrounded by the most exquisitely complex technology and utterly alien landscapes.

Her mind wanted to shut down during the night cycle, truly, but how could it when her fledgling knowledge of Altean was allowing her to finally understand the literally millions of entries on engineering stored in the Castle? How could it when fears of her father and Matt’s safety ran through her thoughts like a ribbon of hope-tinged misery? When she wondered how her Mother was dealing with the loss of her entire family? When the thought of another breakfast of goo, even enhanced by Hunk, made her stomach shudder?

So she got up, read, walked, wandered. She tried to wear out her overly excited mind with brain teasers and new modifications for Green and a couple dozen laps around the training room. She’d just been completing a circuit of the living floors when she’d run into Coran, Coran who’d been sleepwalking of all things, a disheveled red headed blur in the soft night cycle lighting.

(She can tell he wants to smile but is too exhausted, even his mustache drooping in the dark.)

And once she’s comforted him, reminded him that there are ways to stop sleepwalking should he want to remain in bed during the evening hours, Pidge is confronted with a pair of all too knowing, blue grey eyes, asking quite clearly without any words why she is still up.

“I’m an insomniac,” she mutters tiredly, paradoxically tired out by this conversation, “I struggle with going to sleep. Also staying asleep. Did you know a human can die without sleep?” Coran’s brief look of panic causes her to laugh, a deep belly thing that she hadn’t quite expected to hear again.

(A brief pang of grief and panic, how can she be delighted with anything when her family is missing?)

“Number Five, we need to get you to bed then! You’re clearly delirious with a lack of sleep!”

“No, no Coran, it’s only if you never sleep. I’m fine, stop trying to pick me up!”

He gives up at her words, posture still slumped in poorly hidden exhaustion from his own nightly endeavors, and Pidge can’t help but feel that if she needed to sound out her grief to someone who isn’t Shiro and Hunk, Coran would make a good listener. Heaven knows they’d all lost so much.

“Have you tried shutting everything off in your room?” The suggestion is quiet, tentative, but sincere and she thinks about the many blinking lights and softly beeping pieces of tech in her room. “When Allura was little, she struggled with sleep too. The healers suggested that we take out anything that disturbed the darkness. That and a regular bedtime, but that’s somewhat unattainable now. Hard to go to bed at a decent hour with a war on. Oh!” Coran jumped up in surprise, “is your room at a good temperature? Human and Altean bodies differ so much and I never considered if the rooms were set at a human norm!”

He looks so upset with himself that Pidge can’t help but reach out and grab his arm, tugging him back into a sitting position against the wall. “Yeah the room is a little cold, I just add more blankets. It’s not a big –“

“But it could be contributing!”

“Coran, calm down. We can just change the thermostat.”  She bumps his shoulder lightly with her own and is rewarded with a slight smile. “Now, let’s find you some bells. We’ll fix your sleepwalking and then tomorrow we’ll worry about turning off the million blinking lights I’ve collected.”

They spend an extra 20 minutes digging through the storage rooms but it’s worth it, and when the next day comes, Pidge truly realizes the extent of the tech integration in her room. It’s not a perfect fix, but the improved temperature and darkness do help.

Now if only they could do something about Keith’s snoring in the next room over, Pidge’s nights might be close to perfect.

(As close as it gets in an intergalactic castle on a warpath with an angry race of purple fuzz aliens.)


End file.
